... if it be a Phoenicio-Shemitic word "a handful of sheaves," from כדר a handful, and עמֶר sheaf), pr. n. of a king of the Elamites in the time of Abraham, Gen. 14:1, 9.  ["Perhaps its true etymology should be sought in the ancient Persian."]. (Gesenius).

    A king of Elam, who, when first he appeared on the historic scene, was the paramount sovereign over the five kings of the lower Jordan valley, they having been subject to him for the previous twelve years.  In the thirteenth year they threw off his yoke.  In the fourteenth year he made a military expedition against them—the first that is recorded in Scripture.  He had with him three confederate or subject kings with their armies—Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, and Tidal "king of nations" (A.V.), of Goiim (R.V.).  The five kings of the plain encountered the invaders on unfavourable ground in the valley of Siddim, which had in it many "slime"—i.e. bitumen—pits.  They were defeated, and had to flee to the mountains.  Soon afterwards the victors were overcome, and the spoil recaptured in a night attack by the patriarch Abraham (q.v.) (Gen. xiv. 1-16).  Much light has been thrown on this campaign of remote date by the cuneiform inscriptions on the Assyrian monuments.  Though the name of Chedorlaomer has not yet been met with, an analogous one has been found—Kudur Mabug ("the servant of the god Mabug").  Prof. Sayce thinks that he may have been Chedorlaomer's brother.  Kudur Mabug claims to have been "the father of Palestine"—in other words, its paramount ruler.  Arioch king "of Ellasar" is called on the monuments Eri-aku, king of Lassa, son of Kudur Mabug the Elamite.  [Ellasar.]  Tidal king "of nations" was probably king of Gutium, north of Babylonia.  The Assyrian king Assurbanipal mentions an invasion of Chaldea 1635 years before his time, i.e. about 2283 B.C.  The expedition may have established the Elamite supremacy, which afterwards descended by inheritance to Kudur Mabug and Chedorlaomer (Sayce, Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments, pp. 47, 48). (The Sunday School Teacher's Bible Manual, Hunter, 1894).